COPYRIGHT PROTECTION
Copyright in Italy safeguards creative works from the very moment they are brought into being — no registration formalities are required — pursuant to Article 1 of Law No. 633/1941.
Massa Law Firm has assisted authors, enterprises and professionals since 1931 in every copyright-related matter: licensing and assignments, SIAE deposits, plagiarism litigation and online enforcement.
Works protected by copyright
Protection extends to literature, music, the visual arts, architecture, theatre and cinema, irrespective of the mode or form of expression. As information technology has evolved, copyright now also covers photographs, software, databases and industrial designs that possess genuine creativity.
Moral rights always remain with the author, while economic rights last for the author’s lifetime plus seventy years after death.
Our copyright services
Licensing and assignment of rights
Drafting and negotiation of user licences, publishing contracts, music-publishing agreements and software-licence agreements.
SIAE recordal and authorship proof
Filing unpublished works with SIAE or via qualified time-stamping, managing later versions and updates.
Anti-plagiarism and anti-counterfeiting defence
Cease-and-desist letters, formal notices, judicial seizure and civil or criminal actions under Article 171-ter of Law 633/1941 (penalties range from six months to three years’ imprisonment).
Software & database assistance
Source-code audits, open-source versus proprietary licensing, registration in the SIAE public software register.
What changed with Legislative Decree No. 177/2021?
On 12 December 2021 Legislative Decree No. 177/2021 entered into force, transposing Directive (EU) 2019/790 of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market (the “Copyright Directive”) into Italian law. The Directive updates and harmonises Member States’ copyright frameworks to keep pace with technological and digital developments. In addition to “classical” artworks, protection now expressly includes creatively distinctive design, advertising output and, under certain conditions, software.
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